OUR ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER

Today's post was written in Los Angeles, California where yesterday I attended  the annual LA Media Reform Summit, titled Just Media (pun intended). It is designed to be a conference to discuss strategies for developing a real alternative media that independent of the echo chamber for the Left and Right  that helps both corporate parties maintain power through promoting the politics of division.  

I was honored with the opportunity to lead a workshop on the role of the media in covering third party candidates for office. The workshop was well attended by a very knowledgeable and engaged audience.


I want to thank Dick Price and Sharon Kyle of LA Progressives and Common Cause, of whose program on Media and Democracy the LA Media Reform Group is an important part.


This blog was inspired by the keynote speech of the conference, delivered by Marty Kaplan, Director of the Norman Lear Center at USC.


The inability of the average American to sort through the staggering amount of information assaulting the senses from TV, radio, the internet and other sources is a clear and present danger to democracy and ultimately, the survival of human civilization. If there were ever a time when we needed to be able to assimilate a variety of critical information as fast as it becomes available, it is at the dawn of the Revolution that is now upon us. The problem is to learn how to locate, absorb and assimilate the most important of that information. It is essential that in our rapidly changing world we acquire this ability to enable us to emerge victorious in the worldwide struggle against fascism.

Once we have learned how to do this, we must teach these skills to our potential allies in order to be effective in becoming a People that will direct the coming change in our collective consciousness toward one in which liberty, equality and freedom are universally accepted. This is the only way to assure our mutual survival. The alternative is to allow a system of authoritarian control by international corporate terrorists working to enslave us in the fascist New World Order they are preparing for the mass of humanity.  

While the dizzying array of problems that we face makes the task seem insurmountable, basic principles of psychology and information technology can make the job manageable for anyone who sees the importance of understanding events in the United States and the world so that we may be in a position to influence our collective destiny.

At the end of the 20^th century, the average American was exposed to more information in one week than did Americans in a lifetime at the turn of that century. This problem has been termed information overload. This was the theme of Alvin Toffler’s bestselling book Future Shock in 1970. The situation has grown much worse since then. Today, it is estimated that we are only mentally capable of registering 60% of the information we are barraged with each day from all sources. Of course, most of us do much worse for a variety of reasons, each of which can be addressed through the principles addresses in this essay. The problem we face is not one of excess  information but of a deficit in the attention of most Americans.

The first task in organizing information flow is to prioritize by importance the information to which we are exposed. To achieve maximum efficiency, this requires having a very clear sense of what it is we need to attend to in order to have at hand the information required to accomplish the goals that are most important to us. What each of us determines to be important determines how we divide the limited information processing capability of humans. 

This implies that it is distorted values that have made the US a nation whose politicians are too often elected by the ignorance of good Americans who are unwitting tools of the fascists among us. This is a problem not only of those on the right who have been deluded in believing that fascism is the American way and all too often, the will of God. It is also a problem among the deeply divided left who cannot agree on strategy, tactics or even long term goals.

It is very easy to be distracted by pleasurable entertainments such as sex, drugs and escapist TV, movies and literature. We have too little time to spend in play with family and friends because too many of us work at jobs which have no meaning to our lives. Far too many Americans feel compelled to spend their time on jobs that have no purpose but to provide a means of surviving, if indeed they are lucky enough to have a job If we have worked hard and are lucky, we may be able to earn the means of diverting ourselves with pursuits of our choosing. 

Unfortunately, a critical mass of Americans have become so overwhelmed with the responsibility of taking care of their families in an increasingly inhospitable society. The result is that too many of us retreat to self-imposed isolation. For those of us who see hedonism or survivalism as empty pursuits in a world in which the individual seems to be becoming irrelevant, our priorities are clearly different.

The loss of awareness of the interdependence of all of us must be the central concern for those of us seeking to restore democracy in the United States. If we can overcome the corporatist propaganda that uses racism and other forms of scapegoating to divide us, we can again become the melting pot that our founders envisioned. Only by healing the wounds of American society can we become a model for emerging democracies. We will have little influence on whether these states choose theocracy or other forms of despotism until we restore democratic institutions in our own country that can serve as a model to be emulated. 

If we can agree that we must begin to focus on the commonalities which unite us rather than the differences that have been used to divide us, we are well on our way to building the united front that can defeat fascism in the US and the world. This focusing of our attention is the essence of a treatment plan to cure America of the attention deficit disorder that is becoming a pandemic threatening the mental, physical and spiritual health of America and its citizens.

From this framework we can begin to construct a worldview in which the most important problems we must face will become increasingly clear. This enables us to design a battle plan to end fascism in America and thereby defeat it in the world at large. All such plans require the prioritizing of objectives and a corresponding allocation of resources. 

In a war that depends on marshaling a virtual Army of peaceful warriors acting on their own initiative, the development of a consensus on the ultimate objective is critical. That objective should be universal freedom, justice and democracy in the world. The only way to accomplish that is through the democratic process at the local, national and international level.

Each of us constructs a model of reality that is unique to the individual. This is the organizing structure by which we make decisions on how we will act to try to achieve our goals in life. We cannot achieve our individual and collective goals without eradicating the ideas that we should be more loyal to family than neighbor, more respectful of the rich and powerful than each other. 

Most of all, we must erase from our individual and collective consciousness  the idea that any of us can succeed in a world gone mad if we do not tear down the walls that divide us and work together for the greater good of all. As long as we allow injustice to be done to any individual or group, none of us are truly free. The corporate media and our politicians work hard to keep us divided so that we will not unite to destroy the corporate power structure that maintains the privileges of the millionaires in the senate and their corporate Puppetmasters.

It is easy to conclude that the number of problems we are confronting in our efforts to fight fascism are overwhelming.  We have a moral responsibility not to give in to despair. We are the only hope for our children to reap the benefits of the many who have sacrificed so much that they may have a world worth inheriting. 

We also have a debt to repay to those who have given their lives to advance and defend the freedoms we hold dear so that the world may come to know the blessings of democracy.  It is a moral imperative that we find faith that there is a way to unite the Peoples of the United States and all nations into a potent fighting force to peacefully restore democracy to America and to spread the blessings of liberty and justice to all citizens of the Earth.

My opinion is that the critical battle that needs to be fought and won in America is for the abolition of corporate personhood. The fascist coup of the United States government was well underway when the Five Stooges of the Supreme Court gave the keys to the nation to the international corporate terrorists who had been quietly buying it up since the Civil War. 

The battle between democratic patriots and fascists has swung like the pendulum of a clock over the decades until these five powerful men decided to try and stop it with the long arm of the law that they were sworn to enforce. They do so by misusing the controversial doctrine of judicial review. Thomas Jefferson warned us about the danger to democracy of allowing the doctrine to stand after his cousin John Marshall cleverly usurped this power in Marbury v Madison. 

Now that the Supreme Court has the power, like all fascists the court majority has become drunk with it. They have extended the doctrine of fascism under the delusional idea of "original intent." They apparently believe that the Founders were unanimous in assuming that the purpose of government was to protect the power and privilege of economic aristocrats. Legislating from the bench, these fascist madmen have done everything in their considerable power to ensure that our democratic Republic becomes the plaything of the rich. Ignoring any precedent that conflicts with their deluded ideas, they are not only legislating but rewriting the Constitution in favor of the fascists who put them in power. Only a People united can overrule the Court by Constitutional amendment.

Marbury v Madison arouse when John Adams made dozens of federal court appointments literally in the last hours before leaving the White House. This followed his ignominious defeat by a People aghast at the fascist actions of the Federalist government in passing the Alien and Sedition Act. This law gave the President the Imperial power to imprison aliens and citizens who exercised the first amendment rights in a way that displeased him. He jailed Matthew Lyon, a Republican Congressman and newspaper editor, for publicly criticizing him. This the fuse was lit of the second American Revolution, one that continues to this day between those who fear the power of the mob and those who trust in Mankind’s ability to govern itself.

Marbury was an Adams appointee who sued for his job when President Jefferson declined to honor Adams’ political appointees to the newly established federal courts. These had been created under the Judicial Act of 1801, passed by the Federalist-dominated Congress in lame duck session after Jefferson was elected and before he formally assumed office. Knowing that the Supreme Court could only acquire the power to interpret law in a way to benefit the landed class that put them in power for life, Chief Justice John Marshall wrote the majority opinion that ruled in favor of the defendant, Secretary of State James Madison. 

It was this decision that established the right of the Supreme Court to overrule federal legislation. Legislating is the fundamental right and responsibility only of Congress, as the representatives of the People. This is clearly evident by Article One of the Constitution, the longest and most detailed of the Articles outlining the carefully constructed system of checks and balances in the Constitution. 

Chief Justice Marshall, knowing that finding for the administration would mute criticism of the court for seizing the power to strike down laws passed by Congress, decided that the Judicial Act was unconstitutional. In doing so, judicial review became a fait accompli and the battle between Jefferson and the Democratic Republicans against those Federalists who were trying to undo the gains of the Revolution began. That Revolution will not be completed until the American People seize back the power of their government through peaceful democratic Revolution. If we fail, then the Republic is lost, just as the Republic of Rome was lost when Caesar crossed the Rubicon.

Today we are facing a time when fascist corporate terrorists have crossed the Rubicon and entered the senate, where they have been welcomed with open arms since the Civil War. The Constitution was written in part to keep these fascist interests at a distance from the center of government, yet we have let them in the gates. Their lobbyists have literally surrounded Washington. Our senators have assumed the habits of the Roman senate when a weakened Rome fell to the Vandals, who demanded an end to their enslavement by the wealthy citizens of Rome.

We no longer have to pay tribute to our corporate masters. We only have to pay attention to them and plan together to defeat them. The Roman senate took matters into their own hands when Caesar acquired too much power that they and the People of Rome had ceded to him. It remains to be seen whether there are senators brave enough to challenge the fascist Emperors who are increasingly recognized to have no clothes with which to hide their naked greed. 

As a Soldier For Peace I would never advocate violence against the fascist Puppetmasters of  Congress or their lackeys in the Senate. Instead, we can build a movement to overrule a fascist Supreme Court and pass a Constitutional amendment to abolish corporate personhood. Any senator foolish enough to oppose such an amendment has little chance of being re-elected by an awakened constituency. The People of the United States can seize the reins of their government  only by working together. All governments derive their just power to rule only through the consent of the governed. When corporate rule is ended we will truly establish a government of the People, by the People, and for the People.

There is currently a group of US senators that is considering a variety of Constitutional amendments. It is our job to convince them that they must completely abolish corporate personhood or risk suffering the political equivalent of Caesar’s fate. Donna Edwards took an honest stab at putting a Constitutional check on corporate power when she introduced a Constitutional amendment on the floor of the House on February 2, 2010. The amendment will not do what it proposes to do because it only gives Congress the power to regulate corporate contributions, a power that the Puppets in the senate will have no interest in exercising. 

What is worse, it implicitly recognizes the validity of the fascist doctrine of corporate personhood that until now has existed only in the deluded minds of the Five Stooges of the Supreme Court. These are the fascist plotters Roberts, Scalia, Alito, Thomas and Kennedy who ended all limits on corporate power to buy elections with their decision in Citizens United.

It is time that living American citizens become united to end fascism in America and the world. We must abandon the artificial distinctions imposed by a corporate media and corporate politicians and come together to end economic slavery in the United States by removing the lash of the slave owners seeking to make us peasants in a feudal New World Order. The move to amend the Constitution to abolish corporate personhood is perhaps the one issue that can unite the left and right in common cause.

America, this is only common sense. Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of their country and the suffering Peoples of the world. The worldwide Revolution has already begun. Which side are you on?

THE FRIEND OF MY FRIEND IS MY FRIEND

Those who choose to swim with sharks have a dictum: The enemy of my enemy is my friend. This is the warrior mentality of those frightened of freedom. Instead of upholding the rights of the People from whom all just authority to govern comes, they fight on the side of those who would impose worldwide fascism on behalf of the international corporate terrorists who seek to enslave us all in a fascist New World Order.

When those who work for a fascist Empire have taken an oath to defend the nation and its People from all enemies, foreign and domestic they commit treason in violating this sacred oath. The military does not exist to serve a government but the people for whom it exists to serve. As we are seeing in Libya, Egypt and elsewhere there are struggles taking place between the democratic and fascist factions within their militaries. Success of the worldwide war on fascism depends on the success of democratic forces in the militaries of the world in crushing the fascist elements that infect their ranks.

As I have often said, the US military will play a critical role as resistance to fascism builds in the United States. Those who have taken the oath to defend their People must come to realize that when international corporate terrorists have seized the government, the government has become fascist. It is therefore their duty to resist unlawful orders, put in check the fascist elements among them and assure that there is a peaceful transition to democracy in America. 

The FBI and the various “intelligence” agencies are controlled by fascists with a political agenda. The CIA is operating openly in the United States in violation of the law and the FBI is operating in torture chambers around the world, also violating US and international law. The Department of Injustice serves only to preserve and protect the fascist traitors who are the real enemies of freedom. The CIA aids and abets crimes against humanity in service of the international corporate terrorists with whom they have thrown in their lot for a few pieces of silver.

Military intelligence agencies must begin to use their strategic positions to prepare to resist a fascist hostile takeover for America and they must do it now. The President cannot act freely to serve the People with a gun held to his head. It is up to the US military to disarm the fascists who murder men like the Kennedys, Martin Luther King, Jr and Obama, if he opposes them without the support of the People of the United States.

As the rank and file of unions wake up and realize the threat to the American middle class posed by the fascist agenda, average Americans are beginning to see that an assault on any American is an assault on us all. Now is the time to seize the moment. A People united cannot defeated because the power of fascists depends on our ignorance and submission. They achieve this goal only when we allow ourselves to fall victim to unreasoning fear. We have nothing to fear but fear itself and we must cause the death of fear to  become an effective fighting force of Soldiers For Peace.

Tea Party supporters understand that their government is not working for them but do not understand that it is in fact working for the international corporate terrorists who are the Puppetmasters of the US government and the “intelligence” agencies that represent them in the US and around the world. It is up to dissidents in the military and these agencies to rise up and help us Take Back America for the People. A democratic United States will work for liberty and justice for all of the Peoples of the world, for that is the will of its People. 

No truly democratic society has ever made war on another. It is those selfish, shortsighted “leaders” whose tribal mentality keeps us at war with ourselves instead of banding together to fight the traitors who have seized our government in a fascist coup and are intent on imposing a fascist New World Order in which we will all be enslaved, either economically or literally. 

All of Mankind claims to want world peace but too few believe that it is possible. They do not realize that the basic principle of democracy is that the People are capable of ruling themselves in the best interests of all. When enough of us reject the notion that war is inevitable, it will inevitably become unthinkable.

The inherent goodness of men and women is hard to accept when one looks at the behavior of our fascist leaders and those who support them around the world. The truth is that fascists believe that they are acting according to the nature of Man as intended by God. They have deluded themselves into believing that in serving their own narrow self interest that they are ensuring their children the future they believe God has ordained for them, one in which they have the God-given right to rule over the masses. Hence their belief that fascism was the original intent of the founders of modern democracy.

The weaknesses of fascists are many and easy to exploit. Because they believe that Mankind is inherently competitive and self interested, their alliances constantly shift as they jockey for power within the fascist New World Order they are conspiring to create. The most powerful among them have convinced the others to wage war on the Peoples of the nations they control. This means that as conditions change, they will turn on one another as they sense weakness in their friends of convenience. 

While that is not yet apparent on the world stage today, history teaches us that it is inevitably the case. Hitler's betrayal of  the Soviet Union is a prime example of how this happens and also the best example of why it fails. The only motivation of the fascist is to accumulate wealth and power. Life is a zero-sum game of Monopoly to them. They believe that because the rules of the game are rigged in their favor, they cannot lose in the end.

What these simple minded, self-styled Masters of the Universe so not understand is that when they use the anger and fear of the People to control them, those lovers of democracy and freedom will find a way to change the rules. The fascists cannot fight us because to fight a war you must understand your enemy. 

Their utter lack of the fascist mind to understand the nature of the individual motivated to serve the interests of all makes them unable to see how the Peoples of the world can rise as one to crush the corporatocracy on which their control depends. Having no real compassion for others and therefore no real friends, when we begin to take them down one at a time, in the end they will have no one left to defend them.

The worldwide Revolution against fascism has begun. Which side are you on?

SECRETS AND LIES

Privacy has become a huge issue in this day of domestic spying, the politicization of the FBI and government harassment of individuals and organizations opposed the fascist agenda of the Puppetmasters who regard it as their God-given right to rule over the masses in the United States and the world. Julian Assange would be crucified for the simple act of telling Americans what their government is doing in their name, if we let them have that power.

As a psychiatrist, I am very aware of the power of secrets and the lies by which they are hidden. Most families have secrets that their members take great pains to conceal, in the process destroying the integrity of the family unit, the members of whom it is comprised and the larger society of which it and they are a part. 

The same is true for governments that conceal the truth of the dirty secrets of their operations in their own nation and in the nations they have effectively colonized and those they intend to colonize. When the People accept that secrets are appropriate in a nominally democratic society, they surrender their liberty for a false sense of security. A society that depends on the enslavement of even one person cannot said to be free or democratic. Such a society has given up its national soul and no longer has the integrity to call itself a democracy.

In families, secrets are kept about things that are rightly or wrongly considered shameful, like incest, alcoholism, a gay child or a member with mental illness. Sometimes the secret is a dark one, like the fact that Mommy or Daddy pays for the nice house they live in and expensive vacations by working for the CIA, FBI or other government agencies that are stripping ordinary citizens of their rights for the benefit of an economic elite that has created a feudal society in the United States. What is worse, those who are complicit in the deliberate creation of the corporate states of America do it by creating a feudal mentality where soul-destroying inequality is seen as the natural result of capitalism and therefore a sacred thing.

When a nation tolerates the subjugation of the Peoples of other nations, they are ripe for being made slaves of the same international corporate terrorists who are Hell-bent on creating a fascist New World Order. There would be nowhere to run if we let these Puppetmasters of the United States government were to succeed. Like the Catholic bishop in Germany who regretted not standing up for gays, Jews, Gypsies and Communists when Germany turned fascist in the 1930s, there will be no one to help us when they come for us if we do not unite now to fight the common peril of fascism in the US and the world at large.

This is no time for Americans to try to hide themselves from their government or each other. Each of us must drop the masks that conceal our true natures if we want others to trust us. There was a time no so long ago when the average American was unafraid to respectfully state their honest opinion on political matters. This was how the American Revolution started, by town hall meetings, sharing of pamphlets, open debate in newspapers and by talking neighbor to neighbor. 

We must not be afraid to be judged for our opinions nor can we continue to condemn the opinions of others, however ignorant or self-serving they appear. We all come to the debate with different degrees of awareness of our history and the degree to which we have failed to live up to the principles on which our nation was founded. In our anger we must not shout down speakers with whom we disagree. Stifling debate only confirms the unchallenged ideas of the ignorant and makes them feel separate from those who would be their friends and allies in this time of crisis, if both came to the table without hidden agendas, unspoken prejudice and fundamental distrust of each other.

Each of us must become an integral part of our nation and the search for the solutions to the critical problems we all face that our current Congress will not.  The worst thing that we can do at this point in history is to reinforce the fears of fellow Americans that drives them to isolate themselves from society at large. In isolation, it is easy to forget that our collective fates depend on the success or failure of each of us. As economic conditions get worse, we must use the opportunity to make sure that our suffering is not in vain by reaching out to each other to find the solutions that all are looking for.

When we are anonymous, we lose our voice and our collective power to determine our individual and national destiny. The majority of people in the United States do want everyone to have access to affordable health care, for instance. All but the most partisan Democratic “realists” say that the “Affordable” Health Care Act does not provide this. 

What they cannot agree on without having an honest national dialogue is what should replace it. Instead of talking to people who disagree, too many of us are willing to accept the authoritarian pronouncements of leaders of both corporate parties who either knew that that the Act was designed to bail out a failing medical insurance industry or who bought into the conventional wisdom that “It is the best we can do.”

When Americans expect more of their leaders and themselves than half-hearted attempts at incremental “reforms” that do not address our fundamental  problems, we end up with the best government that money can buy. When our so-called leaders accept as a given that they cannot challenge the Puppetmasters who pay for their obscenely expensive campaigns, that government inevitably becomes fascist because it is a government of, by and for corporations. 

Leaders in a true democracy derive all of their just right to govern only through the consent of the People who created that government. If we cannot agree on what we want, then we cannot consent to do what must be done to save democracy in America, restore economic justice the United States and spread these blessings of freedom, justice and peace throughout the world.

It is not too late to change the course of human history, as events in the Muslim world have demonstrated. There is no power that can withstand the will of a People united in the firm determination to resist fascism. We do not have to have another world war to free us all from the prison that we have let the international corporate terrorists build around us at our own expense. 

This struggle is already global. It is up to Americans to remember that we came together twice to fight against the imposition of fascist Empire, in 1775 and in 1941 and realize that it is time to step to the plate again. The worldwide battle against fascism cannot be won by force of arms, which only breeds more violence and repression.  A modern Revolution can only be won and victory made permanent by the power of our innate love for each other that is the commonality that makes us human, no matter how often we forget the principle. 

We must find it in ourselves  as individuals and as nations to forget our differences now and fight together for liberty and justice in the United States and in all the world. Finger-pointing plays into the hands of the fascists who have divided us to the point that they now believe that they can conquer us all. If we want, we can free ourselves from the illusion that we are separate and tear down the walls between us that have until now kept us from achieving the ancient dream of ending war forever.

We will prove them wrong when we stop lying to ourselves to cover our shame and fear for the sins of omission and commission of which all of us are guilty. When we lie to ourselves to avoid painful emotions, we have destroyed our personal integrity.  Each of us is the sum of our individual and collective histories. We cannot change the past so must live with what is and work together to create a better world for our children, because we can change the future.

Our integrity is the one thing that we must be unwilling to surrender. for the sake of convenience or comfort. We cannot assume but must earn  the trust of those who have fundamental disagreements with us. That is the only way that we can work together to stop the creation of a fascist New World Order and replace it with a democratic world based on the principles of equality, justice, mercy, and love for all Mankind. This is the Tectonic Paradigm Shift in the human collective consciousness that must occur to save human civilization from the consequences of allowing the selfish to rule us.

SUBMISSION AND FREEDOM

In Arabic, Islam means “submission.” As with devout Christians, Buddhists and others of faith, they recognize that surrendering the self to a larger One is the ultimate act of liberation. Only by surrendering to God, they reason, does one find the strength to resist submitting to any man out of fear of death or lesser punishment.

The lessons of Iran should not be lost on the leaders of the uprisings in Egypt and elsewhere in the Muslim world. We are witnessing once again the violent attempt to suppress the will of the People of Iran by a religious leader once exalted by the masses for his piety and wisdom. To many outside observers in the West, it is astonishing that so many people who have known secular government would surrender their freedom so easily to any one man. The only religious autocrat to have ever served his People wisely was Mohammad, whose followers resorted to murder immediately after his death in order to gain control of the power that he had wielded so wisely and justly, praised be his name.

The Shah was a fascist autocrat and the will of the People was done in removing him from the Puppet throne. The mistake was in replacing one autocratic regime for another. While Iran has some of the trappings of a democracy, mass resistance to illegal vote tampering is put down with violent force. Demonstrating in solidarity with the Egyptian revolutionaries has now produced the same result. It is in giving away the power of the People to any man that we lose our ability to determine our individual and collective destinies.

The situation is closely analogous to how fascism has taken root in the United States. In a nation still suffering from the trauma of the Vietnam war and Watergate, we chose a smiling representative of the corporatocracy whose infectious grin caused us to instinctively like him better than a man who had finally taken on the difficult work America had abandoned after the political murder of John F. Kennedy for trying to undermine the forces of fascism in the United States and the world.

Carter was not a perfect President. None has ever been, although those whose visages grace the cliffs of Mount Rushmore deserve all the praise they have been given. Carter did not apply evenly the doctrine that the interests of peace always trump corporate interests, but he came close. I believe that when an objective observer looks at the plans that he had started to implement that he or she cannot help but see what a visionary Carter was and is.

Despite extensive televised hearings on the Iran-Contra scandal that revealed how Reagan’s October surprise was a back-door deal with someone in authority in Iran to order the release of the hostages, few seem to realize that the Ayatollah must have been involved in authorizing the deal. This makes him complicit in dealing with the CIA, who late in the Revolution had given up resisting the exit of the Shah. Can this be coincidence? One has to wonder how much of the apparently insane behavior of the Iranian government has been orchestrated by the CIA on behalf of the international corporate terrorists whose ultimate aim he knows to be to remove him from power to be replaced by another of their Puppets.

Reagan was so popular that his complicity in the coup that took Carter out was ignored. Marine Colonel Oliver North testified that he had committed treason before Congress and the world, yet he is a “free” man. A true Muslim or Christian would say otherwise. North like too many of us is a prisoner of the tribal mentality that is the ultimate cause and justification for the crime of war. 

Whether the “tribe” is a nation, a cultural group, a religion or even a family is irrelevant. In this time of unprecedented global interconnectedness, we are all citizens of the world and world leaders should be our servants, not our masters. Kurt Vonnegut coined the term "granfaloon" to describe the artificial groups into which we divide ourselves out of fear of being considered outside of them. This is the reason few of us are free, even within our own minds. To quote Vonnegut: "If you wish to study a granfaloon, just remove the skin of a toy balloon."

We can only stop the imposition of a fascist New World Order by demanding as a unified citizenry of the world that we create a democratic New World Order instead. The UN is a puppet government because if the veto power of the permanent members of the Security Council. Those who direct the actions of the Ambassadors of the council are representing the interests not of the world but of the international corporate terrorists who are competing in a massive game of Risk to determine who will be the Bankers in the game of Monopoly that they are playing. 

The Monopoly money they are using is worth nothing but what they determine it is worth. Since wealth is created by workers, that means that they get to determine what we are worth and how little it will take to appease us so that we do not take to the streets in open revolt. Slow to change their mindset, they are still playing by old rules that the free Peoples of the world are rewriting faster than they can respond with their usual tools of bribery, brutality, murder and war. It is time that together, we end this game of Risk so that we can resume a game of Life that we have a chance at winning.

The closest thing we have to a One World Government is the World Trade Organization. This is not a government but an organization of international corporate terrorists who make the rules that member nations must obey or risk economic retaliation. As with all such arrangements, the power players are the ones who profit from war and the tools of war and they call the shots. 

The WTO exists only to maximize profits for the bankers and other war profiteers who do not hesitate to create the conditions where war appears inevitable. If we accept that self-fulfilling prophecy, they will continue to succeed. We must learn to believe that war is not inevitable if the Peoples of the World act as one and demand liberty and justice for all.


Those who enjoyed this blog may be interested in reading the following essays from Stop the Madness: The Diary of a Soldier For Peace in the War to Take Back America: 

DEFANGING TEHRANYSAURUS REX

CLEAR AS ICE


A BRIEF HISTORY OF SLAVERY

A BRIEF HISTORY OF SLAVERY

 

Today's blog is based on the essay A Brief History of Slavery, from the online book of essays Stop the Madness: The Diary of a Soldier For Peace in the War to Take Back America.

As always, if you like it, please share it.

As the international corporate terrorists enter the final stages of their attempt to impose a fascist New World Order, it behooves us to consider how Peoples have successfully overcome slavery in throughout history. The essential principle is that revolutions are never successful unless those fighting the slavery of fascism first succeed at freeing their minds from the illusion that we are separate and at war with each other rather than fascism itself. We must therefore tear down the Walls that Divide Us to organize the Army of Soldiers For Peace who have never lost a war of liberation once assembled.

Israelis fought enslavement in Egypt by accepting the belief that the only way to become free was to first become free in their own minds, then collectively decide that they would simply not submit to slavery. In earlier times, the Israeli Joseph had won the gratitude of the Pharoah by saving both the Egyptian People and the Israeli slaves through the foresight of storing grain against a famine which soon came. Interestingly, Joseph had been ostracized by his own family before demonstrating his worth. In demonstrating that acting in the interest of all is always the most moral and rewarding thing to do, he earned the right to freedom of the Israeli slaves, even if the Pharoah did not acknowledge it.  Those of the Jewish, Christian and Islamic faiths believe that God intervened as a reward for the sometimes feckless faith of his Chosen People of that time and place.

It seems that prophets arise from time to time when Peoples have accepted the notion that slavery is the nature of life. This is never true because whether granted by God or not, all men and women posses the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Thus, slavery is the greatest evil creation of Mankind because it robs the individual of all these to serve the interests of those in power who regard themselves as having a the God-given right to rule others. This is no different than at other times and places throughout history. The difference in this time and place in the space-time continuum that we all share is that they want to impose slavery on the world so that they will control it in their interests in perpetuity.

This is also our golden opportunity to end slavery once and for all, freeing ourselves from the threat that it can ever arise again from the ashes of the fascist Empire that we are preparing to crush. The internet provides the means to organize across national borders to fight for liberty and justice for all. We simply have to remember that the Qua'ran teaches that the first jihad is the war within each of us to conquer our selfish animal natures and recognize that we are all part of a larger whole that is the human race. Our collective consciousness must undergo a Tectonic Paradigm Shift. I therefore ask the question: What if God Were All of Us?

There are many forms of enslavement. The most important is that which we impose on ourselves by closing our minds to the simple truth that we are all interconnected. Krishna, Buddha, Christ and Muhammad all taught us this in various times and places where we have forgotten it and allowed ourselves to be made slaves of the selfish and self-righteous. If we have faith in anything, we must have faith in the power of the Peoples to successfully wage a peaceful war to free ourselves form the grip of fascism. If we can find the will to imagine that we are one human family, that we are all citizens of the world before all other things, that the internet connects our thoughts so that it forms a collective consciousness that rejects the notion that war is inevitable, we shall overcome some day. It appears to me that day will come far sooner than the self-annointed Masters of the Universe can prepare to stop it.

Shalom.

Asalaam-o-alaykim.

Peace everlasting everywhere to all People who hold love in their hearts individually and collectively for all.

CLEAR AS ICE

Today's blog is a revised version of Chapter Sixty Seven, an essay in the online book Stop the Madness: The Diary of a Soldier For Peace in the War to Take Back America. Updated commentary in light of subsequent events can be viewed at the website. 

As always, if you like it, please share it.

CHAPTER SEVENTY SIX. CLEAR AS ICE

 Written by: Rick Staggenborg, MD on Mar 30, 2010 6:07 AM PDT

This chapter is devoted to Barack Obama, who demonstrated that the people of America care more about a positive, can-do attitude than they do about tough talk and promises from a man who has repeatedly proven himself willing to put his lust for power and fame above his concern for his own integrity.

Unfortunately, in the end history may show that the plutocrats who pay for presidential elections will not be denied by those who they choose to represent them in the world's most powerful position. It is no wonder after Obama made clear, his willingness to advance the corporate agenda, he received George Bush's seal of approval.

His past service for our nation notwithstanding, John McCain did not earn the right to serve as our President. After distinguishing himself briefly as a bipartisan Senator capable of learning from his many past mistakes, McCain betrayed himself and his constituents by compromising his integrity in pursuit of the Presidency. 

Having been ruthlessly savaged in the course of the coup that placed Bush in office in 2000, he chose to abandon every principled decision that he had courageously made in the past in his fruitless pursuit of power. The only revenge he enjoyed for bowing to the corporatocracy  in taking his shot at the golden ring was to keep Bush waiting when he went to accept his endorsement. In response, Bush danced a little jig for waiting reporters on the White House portico, spicing up that day's news  report.

While yet to prove himself willing or capable of fulfilling his promise of transparency and accountability in government, President Obama demonstrated in advance his understanding of the problems that America needs to face if it is ever to regain its standing as a world leader in the struggle to advance democracy in America and the world. His understanding of these issues is clearly spelled out in the Audacity of Hope. and in the subtext of some of his speeches. Now that he has proven that he meant for us to "be the change" in spite of him, it is up to us to understand that  we must become the leaders of that change from the grassroots level.

Among other things, Obama promised us transparency during his campaign . Unfortunately, he has been unable to deliver. The NSA is still as busy as ever prying into our private affairs outside the view of the sleepy eyes in the Senate who are Constitutionally mandated to provide oversight and parental guidance to the bastard child of domestic spying that it created in an Act of mass hysteria following the suspiciously timed 9/11 attack.

The reader who was paying attention during the early days of this latest coup regime will recall that the NSA was given the authority to do so by a reckless cowboy being spurred on by a psychopath with a sick heart. Cheney was of course working with rogue elements of the CIA who in turn were doing the bidding of the Bush, Saud and bin Ladin families and their allies in the corporatocracy. Among others in this elite group of corporate Puppetmasters were the CEOs of Halliburton and unnamed members of Cheney's secret energy committee that met shortly after Bush's inauguration and shortly before 9/11. 

When the senate found out that the Bush administration was in regular violation of the FISA Act that regulated illegal spying on Americans, they dutifully voted to retroactively provide immunity to the telecom giants that provided the means for this domestic spying. Obama voted for the immunity bill in what has become a disturbing pattern of protecting those who have committed treason in the name of "security."

Interestingly, the program was initiated prior to 9/11, even though that "unanticipated" terrorist attack used to justify two wars was the excuse the Bush administration gave for breaking the law. In the name of protecting us from the terrorists whose plan should have been obvious from what was know to the FBI months in advance.  The illegal domestic surveillance program was given a veneer of legitimacy when a cowed Congress passed the Patriot Act.

The question is, who is holding a gun to the President's head? Ollie North, G. Gordon Liddy, George H.W. Bush and certain others may  know but certainly aren’t talking about what is really going  on. You will recall Ollie North as the traitorous Marine colonel who armed the Iranian militants who captured Americans and kept them hostage until Reagan miraculously “rescued” them. 

North is treated like a hero and was rewarded with a nationally syndicated radio show rather than suffering the just punishment for all traitors to democracy. You may not know that this was financed by illegal drug trafficking hidden under the program of the "war on drugs" that has made Columbia such a useful ally to the Empire builders.

G. Gordon Liddy, the rat-eating cannibal of Watergate fame, is similarly lionized by the moronic right-wing corporate drones on his syndicated radio show. He is notorious among younger lovers of freedom and democracy more for counseling paranoid right-wingers to “shoot for the head” when ATF agents come to take their illegal assault weapons. You may recall that certain among them bought these weapons designed for war to defend their fundamentalist religious compounds where they keep hostage young female sex slaves, in accordance with the tenets of their “religions.”

Liddy is a former CIA agent who symbolizes the rogue elements of the agency who work for the corporatocracy and not for the President or the American people. One wonders whether there is any truth to the rumor that he was present on the grassy knoll in Dallas in late November of 1963 along with George H.W. Bush. He certainly seems to feel that he is protected by higher powers than are in the elected government of the United States. So much to know, so little time to act.

If America had truth in advertising laws, you could check this out on the Right Wing Nut Fascist Radio Network. God only knows what G. H. W. Bush is doing, since most of his actions in servicing the country are still classified. Meanwhile, Cheney is starting to have well-earned chest pains again, which any doctor worthy of the name realizes is most likely related to his anxiety over the distinct possibility of facing punishment for his crimes against humanity.
 

Barack Obama demonstrated once more by his election  that the American people prefer a positive message and attitude to more angry, partisan rhetoric. The myth that the angry white males have always held sway in electoral politics should have been disproven by the election of Ronald Reagan. His “Aw, shucks” positivism convinced Americans to take a chance on Bonzo’s roommate instead of sticking with the cautious optimism of the more realistic Jimmy Carter.

Carter's worst fault may have been having too much faith in the ability of the American people to understand the difficulty of changing the direction of history by the power of faith. Of course, Carter was also a "realist" in abusing America's military power in its sphere of hegemony of Latin America, but who among us is perfect?

He may be the President from whom President Obama could learn the most. He was one of those Presidents who like Truman are likely to be judged much more favorably by historians than by his contemporaries. It is the victors of political struggles who write history, after all.

The final story on the Carter Presidency will likely depend on the decisions of men like Obama than the judgments of Carter’s politically driven critics. Unlike Reagan, who made movies about war heroes, Carter served in the military with distinction. Unlike McCain, he is a man of deep moral conviction who was driven by his passion for doing what is right more than he was by the desire to satisfy the expectations of those around him.

Carter left the Southern Baptist Convention when he realized that it had been taken over by authoritarians so convinced of their own moral superiority that they presumed to speak for Jesus Christ and all of America in saying that God is a Republican.

During his time of service in this organization, the right wing fanatics who abandoned any pretense of a separation between Church and State actually changed the bylaws of the Convention to endorse political activity rather than follow its founding principles that expressly forbade it. As a believer in a democratic Republic, Carter could not in good conscience claim to stand with them. 

A true conservative in matters of these basic principles, Carter typically chose principle over what others would call pragmatism. Baptist leaders represented a huge voting bloc of those from families that had become Democrats out of spite after the Civil War and who had effectively become Republicans out of racism after the passage of the Civil Rights Act. These became the core of the modern Republican Party and one of the reasons it has found it so useful to assault the wall between Church and State.

We are now seeing the effects of the breakdown of the wall between Church and State in the rise of one-issue voters who are willing to overlook the crimes of corporate politicians in their attempt to control the bodies of women, against the overwhelming majority of Americans who consider the decision of whether or not to seek an abortion as a question of personal morality not justifiably subject to governmental decree. 

This proved to be the wedge issue that has driven Americans to fight Americans in a schizophrenic battle.  The issue pits traditional conservative values of personal freedom against the sacredness of life. Unfortunately, many of those who consider themselves conservatives regard life as sacred only until birth, after which they believe the  individual is on his own in a world they have made increasingly hostile by their common belief that it has always been so.  

The mainstream of traditional conservatism has always held that the wall between Church and State is an inviolate protection against the tyranny of the majority who might assault their religion if allowed to impose an alternative one on them. Each generation must relearn the lessons of the past in order to avoid dangers foreseen by their forebears. The battle becomes more difficult when waged against the absolute conviction that one side speak for God on every issue that is tearing America apart.

The loyalty of most of the religious Right has also proved to be a useful tool in building a coalition of the willing in the fight to impose fascist rule in America. It is time that more on the Left acknowledge that there is a growing religious Left whose members consider it their responsibility to work for the betterment of Mankind. They are ready, willing and able to join the fight for justice yet often reluctant to join groups whose members regularly demonize all religious  people under the foolish assumption that the corporate media accurately portrays all Christians as tools of the corporatocracy. 

More members of the religious Left are becoming active in social issues and electoral politics as individuals and not as members of churches. By contrast, many fundamentalist churches routinely violate the conditions of their tax-exempt status by advocating for specific candidates, sometimes with the threat of Hell for those who do not share their convictions. 

It is dangerous when preachers use the power of fear to motivate their members, who are susceptible to authoritarian appeals because they grew up in homes where this was the norm. Every person wants the power to think for themselves, but most do not unless encouraged to by those whom they choose to associate. In general, these are the people who agree with them.

It was not always the case that Americans did not talk to each other about politics and religion. The intolerance of different opinions undermines the essential character of the United States that kept the Union together even in the wake of civil war. Since anger on both sides of the Vietnam War pit brother against brother, the divisions have deepened to the point that we must End the Civil War and Finish the Revolution if we are to end the threat of fascism in America and restore the democracy that all true Americans want to see.

It is into this grave crisis in the history of the United States that President Obama has willingly thrust himself. Let us hope that he finds the faith in the American people that will allow him to honor his Christian principles if he gets a Congress willing to work for the People instead of corporations. He remains a much better alternative to a man who had already proven to put his lust for power and fame above his concern for his own integrity.

While Obama has  failed to restore the government to one that serves the People, he is surrounded by enemies of democracy and cannot do the job by himself. He is also trying to find the center in a nation deliberately torn apart by politicians working for corporations to maintain their power and wealth. 

This strategy of divide and conquer has worked so well that most Americans have forgotten the basic lesson of the American Revolution: When challenging a government that has acquired the power to impose the will of an economic elite on the majority, we must all hang together, or surely we will all hang separately. 

The President cannot do this alone. He derives his authority to govern only from the consent of the governed. We can and must show him that the suffering citizenry of the United States can  once again work together to solve the critical problems threatening the viability of the American experiment in democracy. No President can change history without knowing that the American people are behind him or her when  preparing to grab the wheel of the ship of state and change course. 

While President Obama is toeing the corporate line now, the Democratic Party will respond to pressure from the base if we act in unison. Party leaders have bought so deeply into the assumption that they must satisfy the endless greed of those who control the purse that pays for their elections that they have abandoned the principles for which the party has always stood. 

In accepting the self-fulfilling prophecy that the best the so-called leaders of the Democratic Party can do is to follow a path of incremental reform, rank and file Democrats and the party as a whole have allowed themselves to be steadily pushed to acquiescing to fascist control of our government. As a result, the party has lost its moral compass and abandoned the principles by which it used to define itself. 

Now taking ten steps backward to each step forward, it defines success as incremental "progress" in merely slowing the rise of fascism. It has lost not only its identity but its soul, despite the many good men and women who are desperately trying to reform it from within. Any progress in furthering their stated ideals will only come by abandoning the assumption that they can serve two masters. We must demand the selection of real leaders who will take America in a new direction instead of merely following the dictates of their corporate Puppetmasters.

The Republican Party has built a long history of anti-democratic actions that have taken it far from the values and ideals of its founders. The big tent is folding as their base realizes the truth about their agenda. Traditional conservatives who have philosophical differences with liberals must make common cause as American and work to make the Republican Party return to its roots. If they do not, they will never produce candidates willing to put their interests over those of corporations.

McCain abandoned his ideals rather than his career when all moderates were purged from the goose-stepping Republican Party. After being abused by the Bush machine in 2000, a man who had taken an oath to defend the Constitution with his life abandoned all honor. whether he typically chose to exercise the prerogative or not.


The final proof of McCain's sellout to the fascists was his support of torture by the United States, knowing full well the consequences this could have for the members of the military that he had willingly put in harm's way. His past service for our nation notwithstanding, John McCain did not earn the right to serve as our President.
 
Bush was elevated to the Presidency in significant part by Bush family friend James Baker, acting on behalf of the Bush and Saud families and OPEC, through which the two families collude to control oil prices and optimize profits for their friends in this corporate war profiteering industry. 

George III was going to be installed come Hell or high water  an electoral loss or a challenge to the legitimacy of his purported election after the white collar riot halted the vote recount mandated by the state of Florida and therefore the  Constitution.

In the outrageous decision of the Supreme Court that irreparable harm would be done to Bush by following the law, potentially irreparable harm was done to democracy in America. His supporters  dismissed all criticism of the decision as sour grapes and chortled as he plunged us headlong toward fascism, most notably through picking three young believers of the doctrine of original intent for the Supreme Court.


The Five Stooges of the Supreme Court who produced Citizens United were  themselves placed in their lifetime positions  by the same corporate powers that selected Bush as their titular leader. These activist judges have sworn themselves to defend the right of corporations to rape the American people in return for their privileged sinecures, at the cost of their own souls.

Obama may be willing but unable for practical reasons to deliver on his promise of transparency. The NSA is still as busy as ever prying into our private affairs outside the view of the sleepy eyes in the Senate who are Constitutionally mandated to provide oversight of the office of the chief executive.

In passing the  “Patriot” Act in a moment of mass hysteria following the suspiciously timed 9/11 attack, Congress further eroded its own authority. In once again surrendering the authority to declare war , it shed the last vestige of power it had to provide a check on the power of what has become an Imperial Presidency.

Readers with intact memories will recall that it was urged to do so by a reckless cowboy being spurred on by a psychopath with a sick heart working with rogue elements of the CIA. The political hacks in the agency in turn were doing the bidding of the Bush, Saud and bin Ladin families and their allies. Ice must run in their veins. There cold logic has put a chill on democracy and prospects for peace seem to have been put in the deep freeze.

It is crystal clear that democracy is in danger from these insane tools of corporate powers that are mindlessly but systematically destroying the world economy and the middle class. Powerful CEOs are using  the "rights" granted corporations by reactionary fascists on the Supreme Court to undermine the rest of us.  

This feat was accomplished by a deliberate misreading of the due process clause of the Fourteenth amendment that guarantees equal rights to "all persons born or naturalized" in the United States. It is the ultimate in irony that the Court used an amendment designed to free former slaves was used to give corporations the power to make economic slaves of us all.

  
Democracy would surely be lost were it not for the Soldiers of Peace in America, who will defend with their lives and their sacred honor the right for Americans to enjoy the blessings of liberty and democracy. All who have served in the military have taken the pledge to defend our country from all enemies, be they foreign or domestic. Enemies of our freedom have staged a corporate coup bent on imposing fascism in America. 

Being in a state of domestic insurrection aided and abetted by foreign corporate powers, we owe it to ourselves and our posterity to all become Soldiers For Peace. Together, we can Take Back America for the People by implementing the Battle Plan to Take Back America. A united citizenry in the Reunited States of America must have the troops to stage a direct, full frontal assault on corporate personhood with multiple simultaneous flanking attacks. If God exists, it must surely be on the side of liberty, justice and peace in the world.

When in Washington in February of 2010, I notified Eric Holder that I have collected evidence from open sources of a massive international criminal conspiracy involving high government and former government officials in the United States. I have repeatedly requested that he take action on bringing to justice those who are responsible for the political imprisonment of Don Seigelman as a sign of good faith.

Holder must build an airtight case against those who manufactured two wars in the most dangerous part of the globe and are still working to complete the Trifecta by bombing and possibly invading Iran.  The plot described in the Project for a New American Century was developed in detail in the secret meeting of Cheney with the oil executives who stood to benefit the most from the takeover of the Mideast. 

The coup plotters divided the spoils of war in advance, never suspecting that the wars would become deeply unpopular before they could complete the creation of the New World Order we are now fighting to destroy. It is obvious that this former CEO of Halliburton was drive up oil prices still further through yet another disruption of the supply and a tightening of control on its production through conquest. 

The fact that Cheney continued to receive a million dollars a year from the prime war profiteer in Iraq does not seem to shake the confidence of his dwindling supporters. These self-styled Masters of the Universe still think that they will set up an oil pipeline running from Russia’s border to Afghanistan and the sea by propping up an corrupt, illegitimate Puppet regime  by indefinite war that is maintained in part by buying off the corrupt military dictatorship in  Pakistan. This is not realpolitik but a clear case of psychosis. Obama cannot stop this plot alone and those who place all responsibility on him are deluding themselves. 

The fate of a President who publicly challenges the will of the corporate Puppetmasters was made clear when the shots heard round the world rang out on December 22, 1963. Those of us who respect the office of the President must accept that he cannot change the world without the support of a People willing to look beyond the lies of the corporate media and have faith that the President will follow us when we demand that Congress Stop the Madness.

Truth is stronger than lies, however endlessly repeated by the corporate media. The pen is mightier than the sword and the truth will set us free. All that it takes for good men and women to succeed is that they decline to do nothing. If we stand by those who are being persecuted in the name of national insecurity, then there will be others to stand for us when the few, the debased and the shamed come for us. I for one do not intend to see another Jose Padilla tortured in an American prison until he goes insane and cannot stand trial to bear witness to the crimes of our government.

In modern American we are beginning to take our rights seriously.  Out here in the West we have a history of taking care of our own problems. Most of us regard criminals like Cheney as no better than horse thieves. The theft of our Constitutional rights is clearly a more serious crime than theft of property. Everyone knows what happens to horse thieves. What should we do with a horse’s ass who seized the reins of government and used a willing or at least docile corporate media to further his sick agenda of consolidating federal power through fear and hate? What should we do with Rove, mastermind of many criminal conspiracies who openly turned his office into a PR firm promoting permanent rule by a Republican majority who openly stole Presidential elections, imprisoned dissident Governor Don Siegelman and filled the Department of Injustice with political hacks loyal only to meat puppet George Bush?

What we have here is simply a failure to communicate to our elected representatives in Washington that we are mad as Hell and are not going to take them to the dance any more if they cannot follow the beat of our drums. Our Roman style Senate has slept as Bush diddled us and Iraq and the world economy burned.

In 2010, may the best parliamentarians win in open and honest debate. It is clear to me that we the people are hungry for the truth, even those who close their eyes when they see it. Only when they are presented with alternatives to the usual Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber will they be forced to think. Brutal honesty over poll-inspired pablum must become a political asset. Soon, any aspiring politician will have to accept this and know that only the truth can set us free from our own political imprisonment.

In the immortal words of Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson:

Don't think sorry's easily said.

Don't try turning tables instead.

You've taken lots of chances before,

but I'm not gonna give anymore,

don't ask me.

That's how it goes,

‘cause part of me knows what you're thinkin.'

Don't say words you're gonna regret.

Don't let the fire rush to your head.

I've heard the accusation before,

and I ain't gonna take any more.

Believe me,

the sun in your eyes

made some of the lies worth believing.

I am the eye in the sky.

Looking at you,

I can read your mind.

I am the maker of rules,

dealing with fools,

I can cheat you blind.

And I don't need to see any more

to know that

I can read your mind... I can read your mind.

Don't leave false illusions behind.

Don't cry, ‘cause I ain't changing my mind.

So find another fool like before,

‘cause I ain't gonna live anymore, believing

some of the lies, while all of the signs are deceiving.

I am the eye in the sky.

Looking at you,

I can read your mind.

I am the maker of rules,

dealing with fools,

I can cheat you blind.

And I don't need to see any more

to know that

I can read your mind... I can read your mind.

Rick Staggenborg, MD

From the BWI Red Roof Inn overlooking a “secret” NSA training facility outside Baltimore, Maryland on February 22, 2009.